


How cruel is the world that lays itself upon a child’s shoulders; more accurately how that weight is lifted

by orphan_account



Category: The Hobbit, Tolkien - Fandom
Genre: Everyone lives, F/M, Found Family, Gen, M/M, Multi, Other, kinda implied child abuse, modern teenagers dropped into middle earth, non-binary characters, obvi, siblings being siblings, teenagers being teenagers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2020-06-18
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:28:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24781573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Joeri and Noel are dropped (literally) into middle earth and subsequently join the quest to reclaim Erebor (bc plot convenience and Gandalf shenanigans) And when two teenaged siblings get yeeted by fate into a group of dwarves and one hobbit they get adopted (gradually)https://noel-and-joeri-get-adopted.tumblr.com/post/621229273814073344/here-we-have-joeri-left-and-noel-right-withLink to the first post on my side blog for this story! 💕💕💕
Relationships: (eventually), (kinda) - Relationship, Bilbo Baggins/Thorin Oakenshield, Dwalin/Nori (Tolkien)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	1. What (not) to do when you wake up in a weird place

**Author's Note:**

> Let’s note: Joeri is 16, Noel is 13  
> Joeri is non-binary and uses they/them, and there will be points early on where they are unintentionally misgendered. Noel uses she/her  
> I hc Nori as Genderqueer (I’ll alternate between pronouns as I feel), Dori as non-binary (mostly using he/him), Kili, Bofur and Thorin as trans men, and the rest of them are arguably not all straight or cis but I haven’t thought about it as much  
> 

A crashing sound is what startled Kili awake that night at camp, snapping branches and what sounded like quiet groaning prompting him to begin to creeping towards the trees where he had heard it.

He knew he should have woken someone, Fili at least, but then he might be berated for falling asleep and allowing whatever the cause of the sound was to get so close! He knew his uncle would never actually harm him but that didn’t mean he wanted to upset him... 

Kili pushed back some branches and glanced around. The noise had come from here, hadn’t it? After a moment he noticed what looked like a boot sticking out from behind a tree, and where there was a boot there was likely a person attached to it. 

He stepped quietly in the direction of the boot, hoping he wasn’t about to walk into a trap. Kili couldn’t decide if what he found was better or worse.

That boot was indeed attached to a person. He was fairly certain they were a human girl, if the skirt and height were anything to go off of. They had strange clothes and were covered in twigs, and -he cursed himself for not noticing earlier- their forehead had a worrying amount of blood on it, dripping into their hair.

He rushed over to see if they were still breathing, they were, check their pulse, normal, and examine the wound. It started just above their left eyebrow and crossed their forehead, ending where their hairline begun. It was quite bloody but shallow, and he sighed in relief. 

“Thank the maker too, I wasn’t ready to deal with a corpse so soon on this trip..”

Now he had to figure out what to do with an unconscious human, wait until they wake up? Bring them back to camp? Carry them to a human town?

Seeing if they woke up was good, and if they were injured this place might not be safe for either of them, so he elected to carry them back to camp, letting them rest in a less populated corner for the time being. He wasn’t sure how to explain this person, but he couldn’t just leave them!

He found a rag and wiped their forehead, and was just barely smart enough to not attempt to rifle through Oin’s pack for something to tend to their wound with. Their hair was a mess, littered with all sorts of plant bits, and as much as he felt bad for leaving them so unkempt, even he wasn’t indecent enough to go sifting through a strangers hair.

It was nearly time for him to wake someone else to take over watch, but how could he just dump this new discovery onto someone else and pass out? 

“I’ll wait”, Kili decided. He’d wait another hour for them to stir and if nothing changes, he’ll wake Fili, explain the situation to him, and go to sleep knowing his brother will cover for him.

That plan would prove meaningless about half an hour later when he heard his new discovery groaning and stirring.

He watched and held his breath as they shakily pushed themselves into a sitting position, one hand going to cradle their back as they cracked their eyes open. 

They blinked a couple of times, their eyes hazy and unfocused before they cleared, and Kili found himself at the other end of a knife he hadn’t noticed before.

He raised his hands quickly, giving his best “please don’t kill me but also I don’t want to fight you” smile, and they lowered their knife slightly. 

“Ah.. Sorry, reflex...” they muttered, now lowering their hand completely. They looked like they were still slightly dazed, and Kili wondered exactly what had happened to them before he had found them. 

Still, his throat was intact and they seemed nice enough, so he decided to offer an olive branch. 

“That’s alright, we all accidentally almost kill our rescuers at least once! I’m Kili!” He gestures to himself gleefully, hoping his demeanor will come off as charming and not get him almost stabbed again. 

Just then someone clears their throat from the other side of camp and both Kili and the mysterious human swivel their heads to see Nori walking towards them. 

The human lunges for their knife again as Kili rushes to stand up to meet Nori before he gets too close.

Fortunately that doesn’t seem to be an issue as he stops to stand by Kili, observing the human who was still sitting on the ground, knife raised and brows furrowed. 

Nori raised his hands in a placating gesture, grinning lazily, apparently unbothered by the weapon pointed directly at him. 

“Calm yourself there, we won’t hurt you, though I gotta say- I’m damn curious about how you came to be in our camp” his tone was relaxed, but held a tiny underlying threat, and Kili was quick to offer an explanation.

“Oh! Nori it was me! I found her lying in the forest, she was all bloody and knocked out so I brought her here!” 

The human winced as he spoke, and he wondered if it was from the pain of their injuries or if he has said something wrong. Fili often had to tell him what he said wrong and it was probably obvious to everyone but him...

Suddenly the human bolted up, or at least tried to.  
Their legs were shaking and they nearly bent in on themselves as they started to stumble towards the forest. Kili rushed over to grab their arm and try to help them sit down but they simply attempted to escape his grip. Nori stood a small distance away, observing them once again, though his posture suggested he had nearly rushed over himself. 

Kili pulled gently on their arm, guiding them towards the camp, and they only struggled more.

He grit his teeth, “Why won’t you cooperate? You shouldn’t be walking right now!”

They turned towards him, and his eyes widened as he finally saw their expression. 

Their eyes were panicked and wild, and were filling with tears. They nearly shouted as they finally wrenched their arm out of his grip and practically fell backwards towards the trees.

“Didn’t you see anyone else wherever you found me? Please she must have been there, the last thing I remember... she must have come with me! Please just let me look for her!!”

Kili stared at them dumbfounded, and it was Nori to ask the question he was thinking- 

“Who’s she exactly?”

They seemed torn between rushing into the woods and explaining themself, and they apparently decided on dashing off into the trees after looking over his and Nori’s shoulders, their eyes widening before they limp-ran back towards the foliage. 

Kili slowly turned to look over his shoulder and found his bother and Bifur looking curiously at the humans retreating form, and several other members of the company were starting to stir. 

After a split second decision, Kili ran in after them.  
He’d take the hysteria of an armed human on mission over his uncle’s interrogation anyways.


	2. Kili juggles the urge to be funny with teenage angst, his Uncle’s temper and a missing person case

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kili tries and fails to reign Joeri in, its not their fault they’re full of emotions (it kinda is?)

Joeri was more than a little unnerved to say the very least, and the only thing keeping them from crashing into the forest floor from all the pain of their injuries, was their single minded determination to find their sister. They almost considered taking off their boots as they tore through the trees, the heels were only slowing them down after all. They didn’t get the chance to as a rather inconveniently placed root sent them sprawling on the ground.

They struggled to push themself up, looking around wildly. They wanted to shout for their sister, but if there was anything dangerous in these woods, it wouldn’t be safe to disturb it. Some twigs snapped behind them and they fumbled for their knife for what was not the first and probably not the last time that night. The strange man from earlier -the one with the brown hair, not the star fish or any of the others that hand been sleeping behind them- stepped into their line of sight, and they lowered their knife. How many times were they nearly going to stab him? Joeri was fairly certain he didn’t deserve it. He walked towards them slowly, and his demeanor reminded them of their own when they approached a scared animal, which unfortunately felt appropriate at the moment.

Their mind was beginning to clear as they watched him approach, and though they were still worried about their Sister they knew panicking wouldn’t make Noel any safer or easier to find. The last thing they remembered was the two of them walking to the gas station for something to eat after school, and then a sensation of falling, and then nothing. Then waking up in a strange camp and nearly stabbing the man who was now almost at their side.

He settled down next to them and they both sat there in silence. Joeri didn’t know about him, but they had no clue what to say.

Apparently he did though, “You’ve got leaves in your hair you know..”

Joeri gaped at him, and he stared back.

They reached up and pulled a twig out of their hair while they looked at him, and when he said nothing else, they gently flung it at his forehead.

“I mean this is in the nicest way possible but what the hell?? I have a million questions and that might have been the least helpful thing you could have said!”,they sounded angry enough, but the incredulous smile forming on their face seemed to suggest otherwise.

He chuckled sheepishly, picking up the twig and rolling it between his fingers. 

“Sorry,” he said standing and brushing himself off, before offering them his hand, “What do you want me to say?”

They took his hand and righted themself, glancing around, their brows furrowed like they had been before, and they walked further into the trees. The man followed them and Joeri could have sworn he had told them his name. It was on the tip of their tongue, K- something. Ki... Ki... Ki-

“KILI! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?”

Right, Kili. Joeri winced internally as Kili froze behind them, and they stopped walking too, hoping his apparent trustworthiness would apply to his angry companion. The two of them turned towards the direction of the voice, and it finally registered in Joeri’s mind that these people were rather short. Maybe not at the appropriate time.

This man was broader than Kili, and he had fierce blue eyes that made the way he was glowering at them a little more intimidating. Speaking of Kili, he had stepped in front of them, and while it didn’t do much in terms of covering them from sight, Joeri appreciated it nevertheless. 

He waved his arms a bit as he begun to explain himself, “Uncle! Fancy seeing you here, I know this is weird but I was just keeping our new human friend from running to their death or something! This is uh..”, he glanced uncertainly at them and Joeri realized they had never told him their name, but presently they were more occupied by other things, and so was the other man it seemed.

“That human is no friend of ours, I want to know what they are doing so close to our camp!”, overlapped with “You thought I was gonna get myself killed immediately after running into the woods? Damn Kili.”

Both of the men turned to blink at Joeri, and they fidgeted slightly. “Right, not a good response for this situation, let me try again. My name is Joeri, I have no clue where I am, or how I got here, and I really want to be looking for my sister right now..”

They nearly winced at the defeating silence that followed, and they cursed the fact that their social anxiety chose now to resurface. And before they say, threatened two strangers and woke up half their camp?

Kili frowned at them, and the scary one was becoming less angry and more confused looking by the second. But it wasn’t either of them that responded to Joeri. 

“What does your sister look like dear?”, a voice came from further behind Mr. Scary and Joeri blinked. Another person came into the clearing, light hair done up, closely flanked by a rather timid looking redhead.

They responded slowly, a little confused by the sudden shift in atmosphere. “Uh... well. She’s shorter than I am, her hair is curly, and she was wearing white and blue? She was with me when before I woke up here so I thought she’s probably here too..”

Kili was the one to put a hand on their arm, and Joeri was happy to turn to look at him. More people were amassing behind the scary one -who still hadn’t said anything?- and all their eyes on them was beginning to stress Joeri out.

He smiled brightly, “We’ll find your sister, don’t you worry Joeri!”, he sounded confident and if it weren’t for the scary one choosing then to speak up, they might have believed him.

“We haven’t agreed to anything Kili, do not be so quick to offer your help to strangers.”, he scoffed, and Kili seemed to deflate.

“Kili is right Uncle, are we to leave two injured human girls in the forest? They need our help.”, a man with golden hair stepped in front of the gathered crowd, and Kili brightened once more.

Joeri vaguely thought this exchange was beginning to feel like emotional ping pong when they caught a glimpse of white out of the corner of their eye.

The strange men began to argue amongst themselves as Joeri slowly backed towards the trees. A flash of blue fabric through the bushes had them abandon all care for subtlety, pushing through the foliage, ignoring the shouts from behind them.

Lying in a pile of leaves, with a nasty looking gash on her arm was Noel, and Joeri rushed to their sister’s side, checking simultaneously for breathing and for a pulse. They nearly cried with relief when both came back normal. Gently they grabbed her shoulders, squeezing them.

“Noel?”, they shook her gently, “Noel! Hey! Wake up, now isn’t the time for sleeping!”

She groaned, and Joeri released her shoulders, shuffling back on their knees, watching intently. Noel’s face scrunched up and when she finally opened her eyes, they were focused on something behind Joeri.

“Jo... who see they?”, she tried to lift her hand to point but ended up letting that arm fall limp as Joeri turned around to find the gaggle of strangers from earlier staring at them. They huffed and stood up, positioning themself in front of their sister.

“What? Did we grow tails or something? Stop staring yea?”

The scary one scowls at them, but surprisingly, his expression softens slightly after that.

“Tell me..” he says quietly, and if reminds Joeri of how Kili had spoke to them earlier, “how do two human children end up unconscious in the woods?”

Something fragile in Joeri they didn’t realize was there seemed to shatter, and as they looked back and forth between their sister and the group of strangers, a sob broke loose from their throat in spite of themself.

They sunk to the ground, tears suddenly pouring out of their eyes, “I don’t know... I don’t know and it’s really scary..”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Joeri might have almost stabbed Kili too many times and has been dropped into another world and needs to find their sister but goddamnit they’re not used to people being nice to them so they’re gonna befriend him and have a mental breakdown. Multitasking!


	3. Noel has the fourth weirdest meal of her life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We get a tiny little time skip and a POV change!

To say her day had been bizarre so far would be an understatement. Noel was pretty sure the last time she had seen so many almost shitty plot twists in a row was while watching Violetta. 

The first shitty plot twist was waking up in some random forest feeling like she died. With her sibling shaking her awake of course. 

The next was the crowd of random -and kinda short- people standing behind her sibling.

The third shitty plot twist was when Joeri started crying, to most people that might not seem like a big deal but Joeri like, never cried. Seriously, it kind of freaked Noel out. They didn’t even cry at funerals. Who saw the body of someone they cared about and didn’t cry?? Joeri of course, but they were strange.

After that it was sort of mayhem. Joeri was comforted by a few of the strangers and they were both led back to a camp to “tend to their wounds”.

“Who the hell talks like that?” Thought Noel, and she might have voiced that thought if everything didn’t hurt.

Anyways, that basically led up to where they were now, which was introductions and eating something she wasn’t sure she wanted to know the ingredients of.

“Wait wait wait, what were your names again?” Noel was sure she didn’t just hear what she heard.

The blonde one with all the braids smiled, and stretched out an arm to gesture to who he was talking about. 

“I am Fili,” he said, a bit slower than he had before, and if it hadn’t actually been helpful in this situation Noel might’ve felt a bit patronized, “that one over there is my brother Kili.”

Kili -apparently- waved from a near by log where he was probably telling Joeri a story, and Noel decided she was definitely not jealous that a stranger was having an easier time connecting with her older sibling than her. Of course not.

“Over there are the brothers Ri, Nori, Dori, and Ori, in that order.”

Noel glanced in that direction, and decided she wasn’t going to remember everyone’s names immediately. However...

“You know, I’m noticing a bit of a pattern. Unless this is just a weird coincidence and no other sibling names match?” She made her best “interrogation eyes”, but they came out a bit more like she had a headache.

Still, Fili nodded and raised his arm once more, “Over there is Balin, and the grumpy looking one over there is Dwalin”, Noel blinked at the two of them. 

“They seem very different for siblings...”

Fili nodded, then tilted his head in the direction of Joeri and Kili, who seemed to have moved on to fawning over knives? Sure why not.

“To be fair...” he started, “you don’t seem to be anything like your sibling, so you can’t really talk can you?” 

Noel narrowed her eyes, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

She was aware people didn’t always say those sort of things maliciously, but usually they meant, “you look nothing like each other and I’m phrasing it like this because I want to pry but don’t want to seem rude.” And if that was the case she was tired of it.

He shook his head, handing his empty bowl to someone -she’d ask who later- passing by. “Simply that you two behave very differently, you’re significantly less uh, stabby?”

Noel giggled, stabby wasn’t a personality trait but it almost was for Joeri. 

“Fili! Are you having fun without me?” Kili trotted over and plopped down on the log next to his brother.

Noel craned her neck to look around the camp, “Where’s Jojo?”

Both Kili and Fili’s eyes widened as they turned towards her. Kili had a huge shit eating grin on his face. Noel looked nervously between the two of them. “What did I say?”

Kili didn’t answer her, but he did hop on top of the log, and now standing he turned to were Joeri was -Noel could now see that they were sorting through their backpacks, which she had been wearing when they fell- and cupped his hands around his mouth. 

“HEY JOJO!! YOUR SISTER IS LOOKING FOR YOUUUU!”

He slid back down looking incredibly happy with himself, and Joeri was approaching, face red. 

“What?” They hissed at him, “What was so important you had to yell across the camp?? and you!”, they whirled to face Noel, “you did not actually tell them about Jojo!”

Both of the brothers broke down into laughter and Joeri’s face got even redder. They opened their mouth as if to chew them out more when someone tugged on their sleeve. That one was..... oh Noel knew this, Fili actually told her who this was.

“Oh! Uhm, Ori right?” Of course Joeri already memorized it, they were good with names. The man nodded and turned to where the contents of their school bags were still laid out on the grass.

“Those are yours aren’t they?”, he asked, “would you mind showing me some of the things you have, I noticed there are some books in that pile...”

Joeri nodded, and looked at Noel. What did they want? 

“There’s her stuff in that pile as well, Noel do you mind?”

Oh. “Yeah no problem just put it back when you’re done..”

Ori’s face lit up as Joeri led him back to the pile.

Kili turned to Noel excitedly, “where are you from anyways? There’s tons of strange things over there! Earlier Joeri tried to show me something called a phone? It was a little black rectangle but there must have been something wrong with it because they said it wouldn’t turn on...” 

Noel stared at him, she had thought that these people were strange, their heights, clothes, and lack of technology had stood out to her, but she had thought it was rude to ask. Besides they had said they would escort them to a town in the morning, and there had to be at least one working phone there right? 

Honestly the situation they were in was so bizarre Noel hadn’t even realized just.. how bizarre it all was. It felt like they were in a totally different world, and then there was the question of where they were and how they got there. Maybe Joeri knew? They were really good with geography and cultures and languages and stuff. 

“Kili you’ve heard of phones haven’t you? This seems like a pretty remote area and you guys obviously aren’t from like, urban America like me or Joeri or something but I’m pretty sure everyone in the world knows what a phone is...”

Fili and Kili exchanges looks, and Fili leaned forward to press his hand hand against her forehead. Was he checking her temperature?? He was the weird one for not even knowing what a phone was!

Fili finally said something, and the lighthearted atmosphere of before had dissipated. “Noel, we aren’t calling you a liar of course, it’s just.... we’ve never heard of a phone, or heard of anyone who has... and we have a pretty good idea of a lot of places in the world and we’ve never heard of uh... Urban America?”

They had to be joking.

“Really? Then what have you heard of oh wise Fili?”

She didn’t notice the eyes that had begun to stare from other parts of the camp, or the way Ori and Joeri had stopped sorting, and Joeri was almost wincing. 

Fili tilted his head at her, “Well... we were recently in the Shire, and we are headed to Erebor, and we came from the Blue Mountains... there are a great many places in Arda.”

Joeri sat on the log next to Noel, gently placing a hand on her shoulder. 

“So.. Ellie, there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you.”

Noel turned towards them, trying to ignore the sinking feeling in her stomach.

“If you say something like we got tossed into an alternate dimension or universe or something and we’re in an entirely different world I’m going to start screaming.”

Joeri winced, “That is a disturbingly accurate guess..”

Noel decided that she had, had enough coherent thought for one day and so scream she did. For their hosts part, some of them made pained faces, but none of them tried to stop her.

A voice came from behind her.

“Now those are rather disturbing news to receive but I doubt they were worthy of a scream so loud!”

She turned around and there was an old guy on too much gray, he reminded her of a big old dust bunny.

Well, life is already so goddamn weird, might as well roll with it. 

“Okay I give up, who’s the geezer?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A convenient Gandalf appears! I think next chapter might be Joeri’s side of things from this chapter bc things feel like they’re going a bit fast, and then the chapter after that Gandalf is gonna find some convenient excuse to have these two go with the company.


End file.
